| COMMUNICATING
-- SAME TIME or at YOUR CONVENIENCE
SYNCHRONOUS
(same time) communication: Notice that beside a persons name
there is the [meet] sign. By clicking this, it is possible
to initiate an online meeting (essential a chat session).
We will explain the meeting process below. At times you forget
you are online, because the conversations are so much like
face-to-face dialogue.
ASYNCHRONOUS
(at your convenience) communication: (Note: at times it may
feel very synchronous if others are also present in the Comty,
so you can choose to interact or to focus on your own activity.)
There
are three ways to communicate: "News", "Discussion"
and "Messages".
Messages
(Msg) are for short and quick comments (usually not more than
three lines at most). They are not time stamped. News is for
posting information you’d like to make available to the community.
News is time stamped and will automatically be archived after
20 days unless you choose a longer or shorter period of time.
The third option is "Discussion". Like News, it
has a topic heading and room for comments (unlimited) and
is not automatically archived. They both accept URLs.
Below
I will explain each of these options in more detail, as well
as some other key capabilities
Establishing
Lively Discussions
I
will describe all the various Objects (tools) available in
metalayer in next sub-sections, but in this section I would
like to just highlight four of the most commonly used Objects:
MESSAGES
(Msg) (short comments).
-
Click on the 'Msg' link
in the pull-down menu on the Shuttle and a 'Create Msg’
window will appear. Type in a short message of two or
at the most three lines. Click Submit.
- If
you wish to change what you have just written, place the
shuttle over whatever you want to change, left click the
mouse and then use the 'Edit' option on the shuttle to
edit your entry.
-
To cancel the 'Create Msg' window use 'Cancel' button
and to clear the text use the 'Clear' button’
- The
time stamp for messages is not visible, however it is
still possible to see the time stamp by placing the arrow
cursor over the ":" sign between the Name and the message.
NEWS (Posting
information for the community that is time limited).
-
Click on the 'News'
link in the Shuttle and a 'Create News' window will appear.
Provide heading and description in the respective text
boxes. You can also provide a URL. When you have finished
adding your note, click ‘Submit.’
- Use
the Shuttle to add any type of object within the context
of the news.
- Use
the 'Edit' link on the shuttle to edit the News.
-
To cancel the 'Create News' window use the 'Cancel' button
and to clear the text with the 'Clear' button
-
Please note: News will normally be archived after 20 days,
but you can change this.
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DISCUSSION
(also for comments, questions and reflections)
-
Click on the 'Discussion'
link in the Shuttle. Provide a topic and description in
the respective text boxes in the 'Create Discussion' window.
You can also provide a URL. Click Submit. It is important
to put in a short topic because this is what shows up
on the Times page if you look back several days.Using
"Discussion" it is easy to create a threaded
or indented discussion that others can easily follow and
return to.
- Using
the Shuttle you can add any type of object within the
context of the 'Discussion'.
- Using
'Edit' link on the shuttle you can edit the content.
- To
cancel the 'Create Discussion' window use 'Cancel' button
and to clear the text use 'Clear' button.
- The
symbol for a Discussion is a "?!"
MEETING
Meetings can be prearranged, or can be spontaneous. For example,
you will quickly learn to spot who is online. If a person
is online, he or she will have a small red @
symbol next to their name. It is possible to invite this person
to meet at any time.
Meetings provide for a context driven real-time chatting about
a meaningful topic. You can create a meeting within any context
and at any place. Click the "More" link within your Shuttle,
and choose "Meeting" from the drop down. You may choose the
users for the meeting while creating it or you can add them
during the meeting by clicking the "Call User" link on top
of the meeting. If you do not know their user names, click
on the Address Book at the top left of the Comty and find
the Member ID of the person you would like to call to the
meeting.
You can also directly meet someone you see on a Comty or Times
page by clicking the [Meet] word to the right of his or her
name. You then initiate the meeting and the person will be
notified that you are waiting to discuss something. You may
also add other people, or call more people at any time to
the meeting.
Just
like a human conversation, the comments in a meeting remain
in focus for a short while. If you initiate a meeting by clicking
on the "Meet" area beside a name, the messages stay
for 3 minutes only. However, if you initiate a meeting through
the choice on the Shuttle, the messages remain visible for
15 minutes. After 5 minutes they change from red to black,
and during the last 5 minutes then slowly become gray and
then it finally disappears. In this way you can always see
where the action is in the meeting conversation.
If
there are key or important comments that are being made, it
is possible to click on them, bringing up the Idea Weaver™.
At the top left there is a 'SUM' link and this item is added
to a summary of the meeting that is then visible for others
to see at a later time. Others need not go through the clutter
of the meeting, but when they log on, they will see the Meeting
box on their Times page and can easily look at the summary
items and in this way, know some of the essential points of
the meeting.
If
you’d like to understand how to initiate a meeting, here are
some suggestions:
- To
create a Meeting object click below the section heading
and click the 'Meeting'
link in the Shuttle. If the section is not Meeting, click
the 'More' link and select 'Meeting' from the drop down
list.
- Provide
the subject and description for the meeting in the respective
text boxes, browse the member list and select the members
to be called to the meeting. Click 'Submit' to create
a meeting object.
- To
call online members after creating the meeting, click
the "Call Users" link, type the ID of the Member and click
"Call".
- The
member called will get a pop up mentioning the caller
and Comty name. Member will have to click the "Meet" link
to open the meeting object in the same window.
- To
add a new topic click the "Add New Topic" link and using
the Shuttle add new content.
- A
member can summarize important content for further reference.
In the Shuttle below the content, click the 'Sum' link
in the Shuttle and click 'Submit'. The summarized points
appear at the bottom of the meeting.
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In
the next sub-section I have defined the various things that
can be done within the metalayer community on your Comty.
I hope, by now, that you have a feeling for the spirit of
the metalayer space, and that it will soon be your space,
your Comties and your Times page and that you will indeed
be MAKING the news together with your colleagues.
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